Friday 28 November 2008

Matcha & Adzuki

I have a can of adzuki red bean paste sitting in my cupboard for quite sometime, I couldn't even remember when I have bought it. It was hidden underneath a pile of baking ingredients that I have accumulated over the past few months or even close to a year! Fortunately, it has not gone past the expiry date, and I took it out to make a Matcha & Red Bean Butter Cake almost right away.


The cake was made by 'customising' this same recipe for a low fat orange yogurt cake, simply by replacing the orange flavours with matcha powder and some red bean paste. Instead of using a loaf pan, I baked the cake in an 8" round pan. Although it had a big crack across the surface, it was a nicely domed cake. I took the sweet aroma of this matcha cake baking in the oven as a sign of guarantee that it would turn out lovely ;)


Just like bananas & chocolates or hazelnuts & chocolates...I would also consider matcha & adzuki red beans: a match from haven. The cake was wonderfully moist and the crumbs was soft and peppered with red beans...which moved it slightly to the sweeter side of my scale. The only thing that I wasn't quite happy with, was the colour of the crumb...the dark colour of the red bean paste had turned the cake to an awful green. I have to console myself with the saying 'we taste with our mouths and not with our eyes'.


To end this post, I will leave you with the recipe plus a sunshine smile that came with the cake...I hope like me, you'll have a great time baking at home :D






Matcha & Red Bean Butter Cake
Ingredients:
(makes one 20cm cake)

250g cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon matcha powder
70g butter, soften at room temperature
150g sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup (250ml) plain, non-fat yogurt
3 tablespoons red bean paste


Method:
  1. Preheat oven at 180 degC. Lightly grease the side of an 8" (20cm) pan with butter and dust it evenly with flour. Tap away any excess flour and line the base with parchment paper.
  2. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, green tea powder and salt. Set aside.
  3. With an electric mixer, beat butter for about 1 min. Gradually add in sugar and beat until light and creamy.
  4. Dribble in eggs gradually, about 1 tablespoon at a time, beat constantly for about 2 mins.
  5. With a spatula, fold in 1/3 of the flour mixture. Then, fold in 1/2 of the yogurt, followed by half of the remaining flour mixture. Fold in the remaining yogurt and then the rest of the flour mixture. Stir well after each addition.
  6. Stir in the red bean paste, mix well.
  7. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 35~45 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
  8. Remove from oven and let cool in pan for 5 mins. Unmold and cool completely.

39 comments:

MH said...

Hi!
I like cake bakes with yogurt. Somehow it makes me feel I'm eating some healthy cake! :)
Like you, my previous yogurt cakes also cracked! (mine got more cracks!)

Selba said...

Using Matcha and Red Bean, it sounds like healthy butter cake :)

Anonymous said...

love your "smiley" cake.....

Anonymous said...

hello HHB!

Can you share with me which oven did you use to bake all these goodies?

- dust

Edith said...

Whenever I checked into here, I always leave with a smile. Another well done bake.

Anonymous said...

hi,

Love the combination of matcha and adzuki, would definately try it at home.

What type and hiw much of adzuki was added into the cake?

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Dust, I am using a table-top Tefal oven which is similar to
this. It's quite a small oven(21L), and the temperature is not very unstable :( but it does serve its purpose of general baking.

Hi Anonymous, so sorry, I have forgotten to add in the amount of adzuki red bean paste. I have just updated the recipe, I used about 3 tablespoons. I used this brand of canned red bean paste: MORINAGA YUDE AZUKI (you can see a photo of the can here: http://www.nymtc.com/pl_general/azuki.html)
Are you a local? If yes, you can get if from NTUC or cold storage outlets.

Anonymous said...

Awww, that last photo literally made me smile! Hope you'll have a wonderful week ahead, HHB :)

I just saw matcha adzuki ice-cream the other evening, and was wondering how the pairing would work, since I'm not a fan of matcha, but love adzuki :P Is the taste of matcha overpowering here?

Pwinncess said...

Hi HHB,

Been long reader of your's, commenting on and off, and your smiley cake really made me wanna comment again.

SO CUTE! ^^

Elin Chia said...

Hi HHB,

Thanks for the wonderful Matcha & Adzuki cake recipe..haha will definitely add it to my To-Do list..haha it is getting longer now :)

PEBBLES - the Lord's beloved said...

Hi there! I live in Singapore and I love to bake/cook. A friend told me about your blog.

Where can I buy matcha powder from?

Thank you for sharing so many wonderful recipes in your blog.

Anonymous said...

I like combination of matcha and red bean too. Ur cake is so tempting make me feel like baking matcha red bean cake again. :)

I just had it last week in fact, I used a sponge cake base instead.

Here is my creation.

http://angelaphua.multiply.com/photos/album/345/345

May I know how much you pay for the red bean? I bought mine from Daiso.

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Ovenhaven, I used a whole tablespoon of matcha powder as the amount of flour in this recipe is quite alot. The taste is not over powdering...it was just right to me :)

Hi Pwinncess, thanks for taking the time to leave your comments, I'll love to hear from you more ofen :p

Elinluv, like you, I have a never-ending to-do list!

Hi Pebbles, I got the matcha powder from the supermarket at Isetan Scotts basement. I've also seen it at the ntuc outlet at Junction 8. It's about $6~8 in a tiny can. You can take a look at a photo of it here : (http://www.amazon.com/Ujinotsuyu-Matcha-Hagoromo-Natural-Recipes/dp/B000FNJ5JO). Hope this helps.

Hi Let's Masak, your green tea sponge cake looks good! I got the red bean paste from ntuc, can't remember the exact price, but it should be under $4. I made a matcha red bean swiss roll too, will be posting that soon :)

Anonymous said...

Hi HHB,

Thanks for dropping by my site.

I am so eager to see your matcha red bean swiss roll..pls post it soon. :)

sherlyn said...

Green tea and adzuki bean .. sure the perfect match. You reminded me of my can also hidden by baking supplies in my cupboard. :-)

arlyn said...

Hi!It looks yummy with the red bean paste. I'm baking the orange low fat yougurt now, will inform you how it comes out.When i get a hand of red bean paste i would love to try it next time. Thanks for sharing your recipes.

Anonymous said...

Hey HHB

I tried baking this cake and it turned out delicious! thanks!

I saw in one of your comments that you use Tefal tabletop ovens. I am very interested in getting one too. Can you let me know where you bought the oven from and how much you paid for it? Thanks!!!

Michelle

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Michelle, glad to hear that you like this cake too :)
I bought the Tefal oven two years ago, so I don't think this model is still available. I won't recommend it either as the temperature is not very stable. I bought it at this HDB neighbourhood shop "Goh Ah Bee". You can get the address by doing a google search. If I remember correctly, it was cheaper by more than $50 at this shop, I got it at $215. You can look around at the bigger stores for the models that you like and you can give this shop a call to check the prices. Hope this helps :)

devan said...

Hi,

I like to try this recipe. Need to check with you if it's ok to use red bean paste (normally use as filling for moon cake) cause i noticed yours is more to the chunky type.

Cheers!

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Devan, it is not advisable to use those smooth red bean paste for moon cake. The paste will dissolve in the batter. It is best to get those that still has chunks of whole red beans in it. Alternatively, if you have those smooth red bean paste on hand, you can still use it, but don't mix into the batter. What you can do is, first pour 1/3 of the batter inside the pan, then spread some red bean paste on it, then pour 1/3 of the batter, and spread with red bean paste, and finally pour the remaining batter over. You can refer to my post on "Green Tea Pound Cake". This way, the paste will be in the middle of the cake, but although I think some part may still sink to the bottom. Hope this helps and do let me know the outcome after you tried it. Hope you will like it, happy baking!

Susan from Food Blogga said...

I never would have thought to pair adzuki and matcha. But you have convinced me that they're naturals together. :)

Meow Meow said...

Hi there

I've tried your recipe and it was such a nice cake! Thanks very much for sharing the recipe and the detailed methods!

My cake has many cracks too! Cheers!

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Susan, I hope you have the chance to try it...I'm sure you will like this combo!

Hi Meow Meow, I am happy to hear that you like this cake too...you baked a beautiful loaf :D

puppy52doll said...

MMmm I hope to try this out sometime! :D thanks again for sharing!

jenniew3478 said...

did you have a blog about chocolate on local or overseas blog
I love visiting here .

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi puppy52doll, I hope you will like this cake :)

Hi jenniew347, thanks for visiting! I'm afraid I only have this blog, but I am sure there are blogs about chocolate somewhere, you may want to do a google blog search, hope you can find something that you like :)

jenniew3478 said...

in local or overseas blogs i thought you had a link for chocolate but the link was bad .where have you been all my life? I wish I could eat your masterpieces through the computer !

jenniew3478 said...

do you have a favorite chocolate blog? I thought I saw one here .

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi jenniew347, I used to have a link to an overseas chocolate blog, however, recently, the link was no more valid and I couldn't access the blog. So, I have already removed the link.

jenniew3478 said...

how do you have enough time and energy to do your magic?

iml said...

Hi! ThankQ for sharing. It's really delicious.

jberry said...

hi~ I love greentea so I have tried to bake this cake. I added the eggs after creaming the butter & sugar. But it turned out to be a mixture like scrumble egg .... I don't know what is happening, can u help me? thxxx

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi jberry, the butter mixture has curdled (separated). Did you dribble in the eggs gradually? add about 1 tbs one at a time? If you add too much eggs at one go, the butter mixture will curdle, also, the eggs should not be cold from the fridge. Leave it to room temperature before using. Hope this helps.

jberry said...

Thank you very much for yr reply. My cake turned out to be hard like stone... Should I use a whisk or electric mixture when making this kind of cake? I am always afraid that I had beaten the eggs too much. Thanks.

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi jberry, you can either use a whisk or electric mixer. The butter and sugar mixture has to be well beaten till the mixture turns pale and fluffy. After that, just mix well each time the eggs are added. Hope this helps.

hanushi said...

Hi HHB,

I did not see red beans at ntuc and daiso. Which section is it located at ntuc or any places that can find? :)

Happy Homebaker said...

hanushi, only certain ntuc outlets would carry the canned red beans paste...look for the sections which carry Japanese products. As for Daiso, look for it under the food section.

Michelle said...

Hi! ive just recently baked this matcha adzuki cake! loveeeee the taste and smell of it and similarly i have a smiley crack on my cake too. but it was kinda dense. is that how it should be? anyway love all your nice recipes! (:

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Michelle, glad to hear that you like this cake :):) the cake texture is close to a butter cake or pound cake.